Wednesday, April 1, 2009

MAGNOLIA PICTURES HATES BLOGGERS

Wow, Magnolia Pictures really values their customers. Icons of Fright did a report about the subtitle changes from the theatrical release of the film, Let the Right One In, to the DVD version, showing side-by-side comparisons of how the subtitles were dumbed down, cutting out the dark humor of the film. Magnolia Pictures responded, saying they would correct the problem by adding theatrical subtitles as an option of future pressings of the DVD but would not offer exchanges to customers (like me) who had already purchased the DVD. Nice, huh? Well, it gets better.

about the topic of the subtitles that Magnolia Pictures sent to Mongrel Media, the company handling the Canadian release of the film.

"Yes the bloggers are having a field day on this one. Normally they like to pick on the English Dub tracks, but in this case it’s the subtitles. Obviously online tend to get rowdy and bandwagon mentality without knowing all the details. The current subtitle track is not altering the context of the film at all, in fact it’s a more literal translation than any prior version of subtitles. It’s not a defective or faulty subtitle file. Just more literal and larger in size for the small screen. Both English and Spanish subtitle files were produced for this dvd release. Frankly it’s not all that uncommon to have the subs vary from prior releases, typically go unnoticed as subs are purely a translation of film dialogue. This wouldn’t have been a blip had it not been for one particular horror blog doing a side by side and claiming that they are wrong. They are not. We are not doing a recall or anything of that nature, again, these are not defective. Title came out two weeks ago and general public don’t notice and don’t care – bloggers are well known for jumping on something, making an issue of it and moving on. We have decided that based on the feedback that we will be making a running change, so that going forward (once inventories deplete), we will be making that subtitle version available. Options in set up will be; English Subtitles / English (theatrical) Subtitles / Spanish Subtitles”

Now that's customer satisfaction. Not only do the discs have the wrong subtitles but their customers are "rowdy" and mindless, jumping on any "bandwagon". To be honest, I wasn't that angry about the subtitles, even though I bought the DVD the day it was released. Sure I was disappointed, but as an avid fan of foreign movies, I'm used to wrong subtitles and even misspellings in the Asian films. But I'm baffled by Magnolia Picture's disdain for their customers. An exchange should have immediately been offered for the corrected disc but now I believe another apology is in order.